Several things happened today that led me to think about servant leadership, the first prompt was a quote that appeared on a Facebook post:

“Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader … they set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role – always about the goal.”

(Lisa Haisha actor and film producer).

The second prompt was finding a book on my husband’s shelves (we’ve just moved house and our books are mingled and in no particular order). “Servant Leadership” is edited by Ralph Lewis and John Noble, founders of the Greenleaf Centre for Servant-Leadership at South Bank University in the UK.

The third prompt (which really made me get on with it) was an email from Katja who manages my website asking how I was getting on with my first blog – Thank you Katja. The fact that these three things happened on the same day, seemed to be telling me something! (Sorry its taken several years!)

Initially it was the quote that set me thinking about headteachers and aspiring heads I have encountered in my varied roles in education. Many want to make a difference but for a minority, it is about the status or the salary and it seemed to me, when I was an adviser, that if money and status were the goals then that could result in skewed decision-making. One head I knew of restructured the staffing so that she could move up to a higher pay bracket and this included shaving 15 minutes a day off the hours of the teaching assistants and cleaners and paying the Senior Teacher who had the responsibilities of a deputy; the lowest responsibility point that can be given. This is clearly an extreme example but it illustrates that whatever motivates us, also influences our decisions.

Some years ago I worked for my Local Authority as an interim headteacher in schools in crisis, usually for between one and two years whilst the leadership issues were resolved and a new appointment could be made. In sometimes very challenging and turbulent circumstances, I had to believe I was making a difference otherwise I would not have been able to do the job. It reinforced what I had known in conventional headship, that such a job could not be done alone and that you needed at least one other person alongside you who also believed that we were there to serve and not to advance our own careers. Of course, many of us want to do well in our careers too and, if things go well, this happens but advancement is not the prime motivation; it is a product not a goal.

The concept of servant leadership is not a new one, an early proponent of the theory of servant leadership was Robert K Greenleaf in his book The Servant as Leader; published in 1970. Greenleaf said,

“A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”

The concept has been reframed for the 21 st Century by, amongst others, Lewis and Noble and has the following emphases:

• Increased service to others;
• A holistic approach to work;
• The building of a sense of community in the workplace;
• A wider sharing of power in decision-making.

John Noble identifies the following characteristics of servant leadership:

• Listening;
• Empathy;
• Healing;
• Awareness;
• Persuasion;
• Conceptualisation;
• Foresight;
• Stewardship;
• Commitment to the growth of people;
• Building community;

Servant leadership is not just a theory, it should be clear in our everyday work as we model what we believe. How realistic is it in leading schools today when headteachers are under pressure to constantly improve test scores? Service is not a fashionable concept in education, our timetable and agenda are political, meaning that we are tempted towards short term gains rather than sustainable and deep improvement. But, how much better could our schools be if we resisted that temptation? How much better if all our schools focused on serving their communities? What if all headteachers saw their role as that of servant rather than master/mistress?  Of course, many do and when you go into a school that does, led by a head that does, you see the difference it makes. Greenleaf once said that the first step was not asking what you do as a leader but first deciding the kind of leader you wanted to be.

And Buck in his book What Makes a Great School?” concludes with the following bullet points:

• Great schools are led by leaders who are ambitious for their school not themselves;
• They give credit to others for the success of the school;
• They are emotionally self-aware;
• They are prepared to lead by example in any role and do not portray themselves as being too important to do certain types of work;
• They are humbled by the complexity of the environment they are in and always want to learn more about how to improve.

And as WC Bradley, American Industrialist said:

“Write people’s virtues on a tablet of stone and their faults on the sands of the seashore.”

References:

Lewis R & Noble J; Servant Leadership (2008) Management Books 2000 Ltd, Cirencester UK.
Greenleaf RK: The Servant as Leader (1970) Centre for Applied Studies , Michigan.
Buck A: What Makes a Great School? (2009) Sponsored by NCSL & City Challenge.